


Happy Secrets

by HeartlessAngel



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 15:51:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10441299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartlessAngel/pseuds/HeartlessAngel
Summary: Prompto makes observations, Ignis already knows.





	

 

* * *

 

You never know anyone fully. Prompto figured that went double if your best friend’s the crown prince of a doomed kingdom. But secrets are hard to keep hidden when they spend day in and day out in close quarters. Prompto fiddled with the bandana around his wrist. He, if anyone, should know. Gladio sat on the other side of the fire, patching up a shirt that couldn’t have cost him more than a 100 gil. Waste not, want not, he’d say, and sure, what they saved on clothing they could spend on food and shelter. Noctis had flopped down by the tent and sighed when he pulled his boots off to see his wet blue socks specked with blood.

“What’s wrong?” Gladio asked.

“My feet are a mess.” Noctis peeled off one sock and winced.

Gladio looked up at him. He had told Noctis to get another pair of shoes at their last stop, warned him about the pains of walking through wetlands in boots with no give. Prompto turned his attention back to Ignis and the Leiden potatoes when a sermon was imminent.

“Come here,” Gladio said and put his shirt aside.

Prompto saw him dig around in his bag for a first aid kit while Noctis scooted himself closer to Gladio. Prompto could not read the two. There were times when they squabbled on principle alone and then there were other times when they were in harmonious sync for no apparent reason.

Gladio placed Noctis feet on his lap and swabbed the shallow wounds with disinfectant. Noctis hissed at the pain and laid down to cover his face.

“Does it hurt anywhere else?”

“Yeah, the back of the foot. The foot curve. By the toes.” Noctis wiggled his toes until Gladio laughed and pinched his calf.

“Don’t be cheeky.”

“I thought you were into feet.”

Gladio pinched his calf with his whole hand then, sending Noctis into a fit of giggles as he tried to pull his leg back. “Gladio! It tickles!” Whatever else he tried to say faded into laughter.

Prompto considered nudging Ignis to see if he was as surprised, but Ignis seemed to be unraveling a secret of the world in the potato he was chopping into fine cubes. He didn’t bat an eye until Noctis managed to wrestle Gladio down onto the ground. Gladio let out a yell of surprise, but that, too, was submerged in laughter.

“Mind the tent, please,” Ignis said and glanced their way for a brief second. “Prompto, are you done with the carrots?”

Prompto looked down at the potato he was holding and then at Ignis, “I thought you wanted more of these. I’ll get to the carrots right away!” Prompto reached for the carrots. “So, uh, are we just gonna pretend that’s not happening right now?” Prompto asked and pointed at Gladio who currently had a struggling Noctis in an armlock.

Ignis put Prompto’s hand down, “We never point with a knife, unless…”

“Unless there’s a Magitek on the other end of it,” Prompto finished.

The laughter had simmered down into chuckles. Gladio had won their short-lived wrestle match, and yet, Noctis didn’t seem to mind. He placed his hand on Gladio’s cheek for a playful shove, smiling. Gladio grabbed Noctis’ wrist mid-shove and turned his head to place a soft kiss at the base of his hand. It was a blink-and-miss. When Gladio sat back down, he placed his hands around Noctis’ knees in a gentle grasp and pulled him in close. The touching wasn’t new. Out of the three, Gladio was the one to touch Noctis the most. What was new was Noctis’ amused and encouraging reactions to it, the coy smiles and subtle touching of Gladio’s legs when he was pulled in close enough. It was too intimate, like Prompto wasn’t meant to be sneaking glances at them. But then again, they were out in the open, in company, acting like the leading couple of last summer’s blockbuster movie, _Finding Juliet_.

“I’ve got something for you,” Gladio said and dug into his bag again.

“I’m not wearing those,” Noctis said in the same tone he used to talk about beans.

Gladio held up a pair of the most unfashionable boots to ever exist. Mid-calf boots, band-aid colored, round toe, visible seams, and obvious woolly insides; Prompto could only conclude Gladio had made them himself from scraps of old leather vests and the insides of long lost pillows. Waste not, want not to the extreme. Despite Noctis’ half-hearted protests, Gladio carefully put the brand new shoes on.

“Nice, huh?” Gladio beamed at Noctis’ surprised expression.

“Like feet hugs. Where’d you get them?”

“The lady at the last farm we went to overheard me talking to you about shoes. Said your feet would look like Meldacio cheese after a walk out here. She promised me three other pairs if we go back with a Mighty Barramundi, so that’ll be your time to shine.”

“I always shine, like that song on the radio. How’d it go?” Noctis hummed for a few seconds before he found the melody, much to Gladio’s dismay.

Prompto smiled to himself as he, too, hummed along and chopped the carrots. There were probably a lot of things Noctis kept from him, but as long as those things were happy secrets, Prompto didn’t mind.


End file.
